The Tirastranded Campaign

In Miragenon, no one can hear you scream.

The group is on the Fairing Fowl ship headed to Tirastrand with the belowdecks full of Gani settlers. Riga has been appointed Chief of Security and Root Hanson and acolyte Tom Hafner are also on board. Both Hafner and Dawhl are Count Rivett people.

A meeting is held between the party and Captain Dwahl where it is decided that taking the direct route to Tirastrand is the way to go. The circuitous route plan was changed when the fiend named Grayson overheard it. After the meeting, Riga speaks to a Miri passenger who tells him that the Miri people think they will receive a plot of land on Tirastrand. A sailor named Nick the Saint recognizes Riga and calls her Riga the Risen and says he is close with the gods.

The group meets for dinner in Captain Dwahl’s cabin. Dwahl tells of his past and how he served aboard a ship called the Arrowfish in the Pirate Crusades. He tells stories of Count Monar and the Grimes family. When he is finished, Hafner excuses himself and Root, Feylanna, and Dominic take first watch.

Feylanna hears a vague knocking belowdecks and investigates it by herself. She sees a four-fingered burned handprint on a door and Root says that behind the door are some violent Gani criminals. Riga hears whistling from behind the door and after opening it, sees a black handprint on the other side of the door. One of the Gani prisoners spits out a little finger bitten off of another prisoner and says that the fey told them to do it. The group informs Captain Dwahl immediately and is told that Count Rivett authorized the prisoners to become slaves.

The group meets at the docks and hands in their passes for the Forgotten Wings ship. On the way up the gangplank, Falda produces the newly-created axe to Riga. There is a halfling courier on board the ship by the name of Billy Ryefield. Falda asks Billy to tell the story of the Illuminated Lady and Billy launches into a tale of how a young pregnant woman named Linda was betrayed by a sailor named Mr. Dark aboard a ship. Linda’s husband was stabbed and she and her unborn child were thrown overboard. She now haunts the seas while looking for her husband. Unlucky ships see a light and follow it, but fall into the Sinkwell. This is why she is called the Illuminated Lady.

Billy also talks about other things, such as the ulats, which are half-fish and half-men that love the flesh of children and women, and the Lonely Mist, which is a spirit with fey servants called Gale Sticks. When the Miri came to Mossland, only Fey lived there. The Miri chopped down the trees where spirits lived and built ships. The spirits resided in the wood of the ships and became Lonely Mists, which want to reclaim their bodies by making ships sink. Riga asked Billy if he knows Gandrella and Billy says yes. Lastly, Billy mentions that the captain of the Forgotten Wings had a tryst with a fey lady and hasn’t set food on land in the last twenty years.

As a courier working for Count Vico, Billy also shares that Count Vico had captured a Wizard of Winter (possibly Mr Glass) and put him on a ship bound for Lebsmouth. The ship got caught in a blizzard created by an ice demon (possibly Hailstone) and Mr Glass was freed.

The party settles down to dinner and eats a salty gruel. Dominic finishes eating and then excuses himself to guard the sleeping quarters per Falda’s request. Falda studies the Ilfo Kresto poems as he thinks there is an allegory to the Kolban Egg in there. Riga and Felylanna swaddle Dominic to rest for an hour. In his “sleep”, Dominic senses a darkness and feels dead hands pulling him towards it. One of the dead is Hailstone.

In the morning, Falda and Dominic are seasick. Dominic casts CUREDISEASE on Falda and Falda turns into a fog, getting carried off the ship. Luckily he reconstitutes and falls into the water. Falda summons a shark to carry him back to the ship and Dominic reminds himself to not cast divine spells on Falda. In his anger, Falda throws a punch at Dominic, but misses. In the sleeping quarters, Feylanna meets an adherent to the Unborn God of Lebsmouth travelling with an empty cradle. Feylanna questions him and he says that the cradle will remain empty until the unborn becomes reborn.

After breakfast consisting of gruel and some bread, the group hears hail hitting the deck for approximately fifteen minutes. There is a commotion above and suddenly, the ship is attacked by humanoid creatures with bat-like wings and scales. The party is able to defeat the attackers, but not before Dominic forgets the restriction on Falda and inadvertently uses a spell on Falda, turning him into fog once more.

As the group walks towards Stableman’s, a little past the Golden Tiger casino, Feylanna feels like she is being choked by an invisible hand. It stops after a few minutes, but it is definitely concerning to everybody. Back at Stableman’s, it is noticed that the front gate is open with no guard posted. Feylanna notices a zombie hand in the middle of the courtyard and shoots it with an arrow, but it doesn’t move. Apparently it is already dead (again). Everybody except Dominic sneaks into the courtyard, but the effect is ruined when Falda slips on some blood and unceremoniously falls into a door. As stealth is ruined, Dominic joins them inside.

In an office, there is a dead guard surrounded by two dead hands. Feylanna notices a small wooden case on the table and Riga casts MAGEHAND to open the box. There is a scroll inside and a set of four tokens with wings engraved on them. Riga is about to MAGEHAND the scroll open, but Falda snatches the scroll and starts to read it. It is a letter from Root saying how he booked passage for everybody on a ship called the Forgotten Wings to Reachport. The party goes upstairs to check out the rest of the building and finds Malvo dead on the floor in Frank’s old room. Malvo is missing both hands and a leg and there is a rat stuffed in his mouth. There are white hand prints all over the walls and the stench of death permeates the room. Feylanna notices that there are cuts of meat taken from Malvo. All of a sudden, Feylanna starts speaking with the corpse of Malvo! Malvo identifies the man who cut him as Vasil Kabrill, the chef at the Manfodder restaurant, who also screamed out something about the Albino Prince. Malvo also says that his soul will never rest.

The group leaves and alerts the town guard of what happened. On the way there, Dominic asks Feylanna how she spoke with the corpse and she says she doesn’t know, that this is the first time she has ever did it. Strange. At the guard post, Sergeant Leddy travels back to Stableman’s with them and sees the carnage. He posts two guards at the crime scene and departs with the other two guards. Before he leaves, he makes the group promise that they will check in with Inspector Dutaro in the morning and they agree. The party makes their way to the Rocking Chair inn and gets two rooms for 15 sp. Riga wants a bath and they make their way to a nearby bathhouse where Falda pays for baths. Also included are biscuits and tea. Before everybody gets in the bath, Dominic asks to be swaddled and they make fun of him about how he asked. But his request is granted and he is swaddled and rests while the rest bathe and get clean. After an hour, everyone returns to the Rocking Chair where a two CUREMODERATEWOUND potions are consumed [PARTYEQUIPMENT adjusted].

Dominic restlessly stands guard outside of the rooms while everybody else sleeps. He takes note of Feylanna coming out of her room and going into Falda’s. Dominic’s not sure what is going on, but doesn’t say anything. After a few minutes, she returns to her room. Dominic checks on Falda, but he is sleeping. Dominic then wakes up Feylanna but she has no memory of leaving her room. It turns out, she apparently sleep-walked and took the RING OF PROTECTION +1 from Falda, but she returned it to him. She also apparently was singing in the bathhouse but had no memory of that either. Feylanna says she heard a girl’s voice as well, but she was the only one to hear it. Everyone except Dominic goes back to sleep.

In the morning, the group eats their breakfast of bread and jam in the common room. Feylanna notices Falda is a bit injured and heals him without his permission, causing him to cry at the table. He then storms out of the inn. Feylanna follows him, but Falda turns invisible and makes his way back to the smithy. Everyone else meets up with Inspector Dutaro of the city guard at Stableman’s and gives him the rundown of the events that occurred the prior night.

Inspector Dutaro believes that the group wasn’t involved in the deaths, but wants them out of his city nonetheless due to all the weird murders that happen in their presence. He also mentions that Sergeant Leddy never reported back in and is now missing. Riga assures him that the group is leaving town for a short while and the party buys rations for 5 gp and then swings by the smithy to pick Falda up.

At this point, it comes to the group’s attention that the Albino Prince was the one that stole the Kolban Egg and that Glass might be the power behind him. Squire Porte is informed about the failure of the Kolban Egg retrieval and he wants to know the location of the rune nest. He was told that the Temple of Nessiac knows the location. Falda wrote down the runes for the ritual for Squire Porte and the group leaves. They decide to do some shopping and purchase 3 CURELIGHTWOUND potions + 100 arrows for Feylanna.

As late evening falls, Riga hears voices outside, singing in Cloudwalker. The group, minus Falda, go outside and see a Cloudwalker mob at the gate, led by Rendo Dugal and including Riga’s father. Rendo proclaims Riga is the savior, the yoke of Nessiac will not hold them down, and they will all enter the Temple of the White Dawn. Riga stands at the gate and gives them all platitudes, which Rendo constantly spins to fit their religious beliefs. The cult finally leaves.

Another guest appears and the guard introduces him as Silivar Reem. Riga claims he is a contact from The Shaded Lamp and is a trader of instruments. Dominic notices that he bears a very strong resemblance to Shren Zargil and is quite confused until Riga says Silivar, whose real name is Kasper, changes his appearance quite often. Riga tells the rest of the group that Kasper told her that a rune nest has been found and that the party must leave right away to get to it to summon the egg. Unfortunately, there are also reports of ghouls in that area.

Kasper meets the party across the valley and enters the window of a building in an alley, where they find themselves in a store room. Kasper asks everybody to refrain from drawing weapons and casting spells while inside of the temple and enters a magical doorway. Another man, looking very similar to Kasper, meets them on the other side and pulls them (minus Kasper) through another magical tiled door to the room containing the rune nest. Dominic and Feylanna lose their footing on the way in and unceremoniously fall to the floor. The inside of the room stinks of carcass and there are small cages made out of bones that are holding rats. There are rune markings in a circle in the middle of the room and white hand markings all around the wall.

Feylanna notices a ghoul peering down from a hole in the ceiling and fires an arrow at it, hitting it. The ghoul shouts out “Praise to the Albino Prince!” and it drops down to the floor along with three other ghouls. Battle ensues! During this confrontation, Dominic, Feylanna, and Falda fall prey to ghoul bites and get paralyzed. Riga is able to hold off the ghouls for a bit until the paralysis wears off on some of them. Unfortunately for them, a ghoul cleric has joined forces with the other enemies, including many zombified hands. Dominic prays to the power of Leben and channels, killing most of the hands and felling one ghoul. Falda manages to slay the ghoul cleric by burning it with a SCORCHINGRAY spell. Dominic searches the body and gets some assorted jewelry [added to PARTYEQUIPMENT].

Falda starts the ritual at the rune nest while the rest of the group remains on guard to protect him from other ghouls. Suddenly, a giant white hand the size of a pony appears in the circle instead of the Kolban Egg. Riga stabs it and barely dodges a spray of puss that comes out of it. The hand grapples Riga while Dominic casts PRAYER on the group and lets the power of Leben wash over them, enhancing their abilities. Again, Falda is able to heroically kill the hand with a SCORCHINGRAY spell without burning Riga. The fact that Falda is slaying all these monsters will definitely not resolve his arrogance issues!

The group is very confused about what just happened, but Falda explains that the Kolban Egg was most likely summoned away from where it once was and replaced by the giant hand as a trap for the party. The Kolban Egg was possibly stolen by Baron Burmeck. Falda says that the ritual rune papers that Dominic “sold” (even though he didn’t) were probably used to steal the Kolban Egg. Dominic lets his temper get the better of him and tells Falda that pages were found missing out of Ilfar Kresto’s journal, which was in Falda’s possession. This only serves to enrage Falda and cause him to doubt all of the party’s trustworthiness. Dominic realizes he made a mistake in bringing it up, but the damage is done. The party decides to return to Stableman’s for the evening for a late meal and then some sleep and then plan what to do in the morning.

Riga and Feylanna are are served a meal at Baron Burmeck’s residence at the conclusion of their meeting with him. While eating, Feylanna notices two Kofarbo pieces in the shape of wolves being displayed. These pieces are similar to the ones seen in Ilfar Kresto’s tomb. Feylanna recalls playing Kofarbo a long time ago and expresses a desire to seek out a Kofarbo set. Their meal finished, Feylanna leaves to go to Stone Street to visit Do Krevis, the dwarven jeweler, to see if he has one.

In the meantime, Dominic is at the Femo Zekis Repository and he successfully located a book on Kolban burial rites. Dominic copied down the appropriate prayers into his notebook and returned the book to the shelf. Suddenly, he hears a woman’s voice in the formerly empty room and comes across a Solomon woman. She introduces herself as Usuna from the Gilded Grace, a mercenary priesthood that can do rituals for a price. She speaks with Dominic about topics regarding the Rokis Curse and asks if he knows the originator, which he doesn’t. She then pauses abruptly and looks started, noticing the blackness in Dominic’s eyes, which he and the rest got in Miragenon. She calls it the “Tears of Marwramei” or the “Tears of the Blasphemer” and says they call it the Blasphemer because Mawramei hates the gods and everything that is holy. Usuna says that if a person who is afflicted with the Tears of Mawramei dies without being cured, they will linger in some form after death. She offers a cure but says it involves rare gems and the price is 1,200 gp per person.

Usuna also says that Dominic’s affliction of not being able to sleep can be temporarily solved by him being swaddled in a thick blanket to deprive all senses for an hour. He is warned though that somebody must wake him up since he won’t wake up on his own and can die if left undisturbed. Dominic tells her about Riga’s affliction about not being able to taste properly and she says that, while not inherently dangerous, it can become dangerous since Riga is dulled to pain and cannot tell when she is hurt. Dominic tells her that he will return to contact her once he tells the rest of the group all of this news.

In the meantime, Feylanna returns to Stableman’s carrying a brand new set of Kofarbo with all 120 pieces. She sees Dominick there and asks him if he wants to play. He declines because he is restless, but he watches her open the instruction book and start to dig in.

Riga and Falda are walking about town and are ambushed by a dwarven hunter of Kolban and his attack dog and barely survive. Falda was almost kidnaped by the dwarf, but the attempt failed and the hunter and dog both escaped capture. They both return to Stableman’s where Dominic notices how injured they are and channels a healing. Oddly, Falda screams that he doesn’t want to be healed by Dominic and storms up to his room. Riga says that Falda doesn’t trust Dominic since the copies of the Kolban rune went missing. Riga goes upstairs, searches Falda’s possessions, and discovers that there are pages missing from the journal of Ilfar Kresto. Riga tries to find Falda, but it appears Falda climbed out of the window and away from Stableman’s.

Feylanna and the rest track Falda’s passage to Do Krevis, the jeweler, and find out that he sold something to get money. Do Krevis is asked whether or not he knows anything about a dwarven hunter and he says he has heard of the existence of a Kolban hunter society. He also says he will keep an ear out and let the group know if he hears any more info about their location. Everyone finally tracks down Falda at a weaponsmith’s place of business and see that he is busy constructing a new axe. Falda sees Feylanna watching him and screams at her to leave him alone. Feylanna keeps watch on Falda while Riga and Dominic return to Stableman’s and question Freddy.

Freddy comes clean and admits his name is Ash and that he turned in approximately 60 humans to the ghouls for food. Riga and Dominic escort Ash to his home and meet his wife. Unfortunately, one of their daughters, Fiona, was just killed the night before by being strangled by a white hand! Could it have been Ash’s zombified hand? Riga gives the wife 9 sp and tells the family to use the money to leave the city for their own safety. Riga and Dominic then return to Stableman’s.

Back at Stableman’s, Malvo has bought and made dinner for everyone after Riga gave him some money for the mercenary team’s services. The entire group eats, even Riga who says the food is bland, except for Falda, who goes upstairs to sulk. Riga brings food up to Falda’s room. Riga and Feylanna then swaddle up Dominic so he can rest and then wake him after an hour. Dominic feels better, but while he was enshrouded by the blankets, he felt a presence with him…

After riding along the docks scouting for the Rising Eagle and finding no sign of it, Reynard halted the cart at the harbor master’s office and Riga and Falda went inside to enquire about the Rising Eagle. Dominic jumped off the cart and started pacing restlessly along the docks while Feylanna and Reynard chatted cozily on the cart. After a long wait, Riga and Falda finally came back out. It was dusk now. Dominic rush over, everyone mounted back on the cart, and Reynard set out for Stableman’s.

Crossing into the Valley night had relieved day, and the guard at the gate warned that ghouls were still roaming the city by dark, though they did not appear to engage groups, so he cautioned to they together. The streets in the Valley were quiet and mostly empty, and the cart was a mere few blocks away from Stableman’s when Feylanna called a halt. She said she saw a strange glowing black aura in an alley and, in fact, all of us, with the exception of Reynard, were surrounded by it. The group jumps out of the cart, goes into the alley, and sees a suspicious looking man at the other end of it holding one hand behind his back. His other hand is apparently a crawling hand! The zombified hand quickly scuttles across the ground and down a grate. Feylanna looks down the grate and sees a ghoul, quickly drawing her bow and firing two arrows at it, hitting it twice.

Riga rushes past Feylanna and knocks over the one-handed human at the end of the alley, but then skids to a stop as she almost runs into two more ghouls walking into view. Dominic runs forward while shouting a prayer to Leben and a burst of positive energy flows out of him, killing the ghoul in the grate and injuring the other two down the alley. Feylanna aims at them and fires two more arrows, killing them both. Combat done, they turn their attention to interrogating the one-armed man, who says his name is Freddy.

Freddy seems very shifty. He tells a story of how his former neighbor Tellis, now one of the ghouls they just killed, forced him to cut off his hand to save his family. Freddy also claims the ghouls wanted him to lead them to a refugee family in order to eat them. The party has a difficult time trusting Freddy because he seems to not know how many children he has. The group informs the nearest town guard patrol and they get to work disposing of the ghoul corpses.

The party doesn’t want to leave Freddy to his own devices so they take him with them to Stableman’s. There, they meet up with Malvo, the head of the mercenaries tasked to guard the boarding house. Malvo lets them know that a Cloudwalker was asking about Riga the other day. While walking around, Feylanna and Riga notice a Kolban rune scrawled upon a door. It is a “Hunter’s Prey” rune approximately three days old, according to Feylanna. It means that there is a Kolban hunter out there who is claiming them for a hunt. The group decides to leave the rune there as it is easier to deal with one hunter that they know about than multiple unknown hunters. They decide to go find the family of refugees that Freddy was going to lead the ghouls to and find them a safe haven.

Everybody loads into Reynard’s cart and they make their way to the location of the refugees. In an abandoned building, they find 9 people: an older man, his wife, a mother, and her six children. They are loaded into the wagon and taken to a nearby orphanage for safety. An initiate of Mir runs the orphanage and he is moved to allow the refugees into his place after some gold pieces are exchanged. Once that is done, the group returns to Stableman’s to figure out a plan. A discussion about getting access to a Cober Stone takes place because the Cober Stone can apparently move the Kolban Egg whilst also cancelling its cold effects. It is decided that the next day, the group will book a ship to get to the Fairing Fowl while Dominic visits the Femo Zekis Repository in order to research Kolban burial rites and prayers. Dominic stays in the room where Frank died, keeping guard on the untrustworthy Freddy.

However, there is a disturbance in the night! Riga runs into Dominic’s room and asks if Dominic heard any sounds or voices. Riga claims she heard a voice saying “The city remembers, the city cries, the city mourns.” in Cloudwalker. It is at this time that Dominic also realizes that the paper he wrote the Kolban Egg ritual runes on is now missing! As he and Riga are discussing this, they notice a white hand mark above where Freddy was sleeping. Freddy couldn’t have done it since he was sleeping and the hand mark was the hand that Freddy is missing. Strange things are afoot!

In the morning, Riga’s father appears at Stableman’s and she greets him by kneeing him in the groin. After that, he tells Riga that she will restore the Cloudwalkers to glory and that he wants her to visit a church service held in a bar called Driftwood down by the docks. Riga promises she will and her father departs. After that, an official comes with five soldiers and says that he is to escort the group to an audience with Baron Burmeck, the Protector of the Sanguine Docks District. Falda, Riga, and Feylanna go with them while Dominic travels to the Femo Zekis Repository with Reynard. Freddy is staying under the mercenaries’ guard at Stableman’s.

Dominic arrives on Prayer’s Pass Street and enters the Femo Zekis Repository. There, he meets with Linda Zekis, who is acquainted with Dominic’s father. He tells her about the Kolban burial rite subject matter and she brings him to a large area cramped with bookshelves. Dominic, being a scribe, is no stranger to research and eagerly hunts through the shelves.

The rest of the group arrives at Baron Burmeck’s residence and is met by Squire Porte, who brings them to the baron, who is protected by two wolves. Baron Burmeck wants to know about the location of the Kolban Egg and says he is in the unique position of being the only person to properly protect it from the Wizards of Winter. Baron Burmeck admits that he has the Cober Stone and that the party can use it if they bring the Kolban Egg to him. He also says he knows about the Albino Prince and the Tomb of Ilfar Kresto. Baron Burmeck says finding the rune nest and clearing it of ghouls is a job for Mr Gold. He also confirms that Sir Barry was killed by his servant Ben and that Sir Barry’s body is on the Fairing Fowl. Burmeck offers use of a ship to the group for their own purposes.

The party is rowing in their canoe in the heavy fog, passing some islands that have peat bonfires on them. Feylanna thinks the Heswrahei camp is nearby and she is proven right because on one of the islands, they see a number of Heswrahei coming out to the dock. The party rows up to it and the Heswrahei tell them to undress. Eikamar, the shaman, approaches and is able to wake up Gilshine from what appeared to be a magically-induced slumber. Falda casts a CHARMPERSON on Gilshine immediately while Eikemar spreads a chicken broth-like substance on the group, seemingly to undo the death ritual that allowed them into the hatchery. Once that is completed, they are led to a sweat lodge.

Inside is Mother Thendeko with what appears to be a 6-foot tall living Marwramei! The Marwramei is dressed in a blue silk robe and is wearing jewelry. It has the head of a crocodile, but a human body. Mother Thendeko gestures to her servants and everybody is fed some type of jerky meat. Mother Thendeko asks Dominic who his father is and he replies that his name is Zachariah. She asks if his father was proud of him and Dominic replies that he hopes so. The last question she asks is if Dominic has any children and he responded that he used to. He cannot help but think of his daughter Eleni, who was claimed early on by the Rokis Curse. These answers seem to pass Mother Thendeko’s scrutiny.

After the questioning is over, Riga gives the gift to Mother Thendeko. She looks inside and then hands it to a servant. Eikamar asks the party if they have the Kolban Egg and if anybody will be looking for it. Eikamar says that the Heswrahei want nothing more to do with the wars of mankind. The servant with the gift leaves the sweat lodge and is followed by the silent Marwramei. The group is fed some pork soup and a type of fermented beverage as a meal. Riga complains that nothing has any taste. Talen eats the food, but looks extremely nauseous afterwards. Mother Thendeko introduces Rasa Veiras, the cousin of Osh, who is then told of Osh’s valiant death by the members of the party. Rasa is instructed to guide the group out of the Winter Marsh and they depart the sweat lodge.

Outside, Rasa gets into their canoe and they paddle through the swamp. The motion combined with the strange food causes Talen to lean over the side of the boat and vomit. After a bit of time, they get out and travel on foot. Talen is lagging behind and Dominic catches him almost eating a dead rat. Talen says he is hungry but Dominic persuades him to drop the carcass. Dominic decides to keep an eye on him.

After a time, they reach the Brotherhood of the Silver Mist’s monastery in Tidestrand. Talen bounds ahead while Rasa, having fulfilled his duties, returns to the Heswrahei encampment. The group follows Talen to the monastery while engaging Gilshine in conversation. Kagan Gilshine is a fletcher from Elmsgrove who, while not a rebel, stands up for Gani rights. It was this activism that led Count Rivett to close down his shop and use him as a sacrifice to Hatcher. While discussing this, the rest of the group meet up with Talen and Master Harano aboard the beached ship the Tide Mark. It was here that they were fed fish soup. Talen immediately gets sick and leaves. A discussion ensues amongst the remaining members on what to do next: finish the Kolban Egg ritual or intercept the Fairing Fowl ship. It is decided that, currently, they will speak to Hailstone’s head outside, away from the prying eyes of others.

As they go outside, they see a figure in the trash heap outside of the ship. To their surprise, it is Talen, eating the refuse! Dominic casts DIAGNOSEDISEASE and determines that Talen has some sort of sickness, but cannot fix him at the moment. Talen decides to go to bed while the rest of the group huddles together and Dominic casts SPEAKWITHDEAD upon the head of Hailstone.

Hailstone opens its eyes. Dominic asks what it knows of the Cradle of Rofin. It responds that the Mankari stole the power of Kolban. The Mankari bred with the primitive Rofin to create the Par-Rofin. They built an empire, but it had to be destroyed because nobody steals from the White Dragon; they thought they could create what they wanted. They didn’t recognize they were the children of the Petrified Lady. The Kolbans follow the bidding of the White Dragon and will destroy them and their spawn, the Par-Rofin. Hailstone also says that he isn’t the enemy of the party and that he only wants to serve Kolban. He was ordered to retrieve the Kolban Egg and attack the party by Master Gobain. His final wish is to be properly buried near the Kolban Egg. Dominic gives his promise to do so and casts GENTLEREPOSE on the head to make it last.

The ritual has been finished and the decision to sleep is made. Falda tells Dominic that the village is safe and no watch needs to be kept, but Dominic has never been to Tidestrand before and decides to stay up all night to ensure everybody is safe. In the morning, Talen makes the decision to stay at the monastery to heal himself and Kagan Gilshine opts to stay behind as well, so the group bids them farewell. Master Harano generously feeds everybody some breakfast, more fish soup, and gives them rations for the trip to Lebsmouth. The walk is uneventful and they arrive at the gate of Lebsmouth’s Delta District. A guard warns them of a ghoul problem on the west side. Around town, Falda recommends a crab sandwich shop so they all stop for lunch. Dominic orders a delicious crab sandwich, but Feylanna decides on a pork sandwich instead. She spits out her first bite and kisses her fist. Riga doesn’t like the sandwich she ordered and says it tastes bland, so Falda eats the other half of her sandwich. Dominic hasn’t been traveling for long with these folks, but he is definitely noticing some quirks.

The group visits Reynard, who drives them around town on a cart. Dominic asks for the nearest carpentry shop to purchase a box for Hailstone’s head. Reynard drives them there and Feylanna generously pays the 1 GP cost for a box to be made. The carpenter tells Dominic that the box will be ready the next day. The party makes their way to the docks but there is no sign of the Rising Eagle ship. How will they make their way towards Reachport to link up with the Fairing Fowl? And why is everybody acting so weirdly?

The group gathers in the aftermath of the Hailstone battle to discuss their options. Falda wants to go to the Temple of Nesciec to complete his ritual. Dominic wants to cast a SPEAKWITHDEAD spell on Hailstone’s head, but Riga talks him out of it, saying that if the spell is cast in Miragenon, the Wizards of Winter may be alerted as to what is happening. Riga says that it is probably best if the SPEAKWITHDEAD spell is cast in the real world and Dominic grudgingly agrees. The group decides that the next step is to leave Miragenon and walks back to the cave of the Thendrakes to see Osh and Duro.

Duro feeds the party some dinner of what looks like chicken and seaweed soup to replenish their strength after their hard-fought battle with Hailstone. He then explains that, in order for them to leave, they must travel to the Void of Whispers to learn where Hatcher’s sacrifice is going to be made. Once they learn that, they must save the sacrifice in order to leave Miragenon. Dominic mumbles a prayer to Leben and casts his remaining healing channels as well as casting MAKEWHOLE on Feylanna’s bow to repair it from the sundering that Hailstone gave to it. Seeing the Thendrakes standing guard, the group decides to sleep.

The next day, Duro supplies more special eggs for breakfast, the ones that hide people from the gaze of Hatcher. Also part of breakfast are steamed wraps with what appears to be chicken inside. Duro and Osh take us to a place where an extremely wide pit resides, about sixty feet across. There is a rope bridge running across the pit. Duro hands out drums to each member and instructs them to go over the bridge. He says the drums will catch voices and translate them and then takes Osh and leaves. Not much happens initially, but after a while, the drums start vibrating and voices come out of them.

Small Drum: “Sir Barry’s body has been prepared for the journey.”
Big Drum: “Have you chosen an acolyte for the trip?”
SD: “Yes, Tom Hafner, will be the one.”
BD: “And Hanson, is he satified that none of this was our doing?”
SD: “Yes, he blames himself and the missing servant, and he’s dedicated to fulfilling Sir Barry’s quest.”
BD: “And the present for Count Vico, is it ready?”
SD: “It is, and I believe he will be pleased, even if he foresees it.”
BD: “The Fairing Fowl is ready to depart in the morning and should make Reachport in good time for the Ram’s Horn Feast. So all that’s left is the sacrifice.”
SD: “I will prepare Gilshine at once.”
BD: “Is it wise, he is well liked.”
SD: “They will know that Hatcher took him, and the terror will quell them. Only the savage will fight on in the face of such a fate.”
BD: “I hope you’re right.”

The drums fall silent and the group makes its way back to the Thendrake camp, where they are told to remove their clothes so that black and white feathers could be sewn on as part of a ritual. Duro gives Riga a present to deliver to Mother Thendeko, which she promises to do. Duro also distributes vials from a box to assist in dealing with Hatcher: 6 CUREMODERATEWOUND, 5 GASEOUSFORM, 2 BULLSTRENGTH, 2 CAT’S GRACE, 2 BEAR’S ENDURANCE and a cold iron trident, which Riga equips. Duro also says that Osh will enchant the trident when the time is right in case it needs to be used against Hatcher. Duro then gives everybody a drink from a flask that turns their eyes to black. He says it will make them immune to Hatcher’s fear effects and then he leaves the group to go on their way.

To prepare, the canoe was placed as near as possible to the large cave where Hatcher receives its sacrifices. Falda summons a giant wasp and Dominic stands next to the pond where sacrifices fall and readies an egg to shove into the Gilshine’s mouth. The egg (supplied by Duro) will hide Gilshine from Hatcher’s senses, hopefully. Riga drinks a potion of BULLSTRENGTH and BEAR’s ENDURANCE while Feylanna drinks a potion of CAT’S GRACE. A bright light shines into the pool – get ready, it is about to happen!

Gilshine falls out of the sky towards the pond. The summoned wasp was able to snatch him midair before his body hit the water and brought him to Dominic, who quickly cracked the egg and poured the contents into Gilshine’s mouth. Suddenly, Hatcher starts to run towards the pond, booming footsteps shaking the cave and Falda casts INVISIBILITY on himself. Hatcher screeches and, despite drinking some the potion supplied by Duro, the party falls victim to Hatcher’s fear powers. They see their own shadows start to attack and grapple with them! Dominic is able to cast REMOVEFEAR on Feylanna and Talen in order for them to start moving Gilshine out of the cave.

Hatcher grabs the summoned wasp and swallowed it whole. It served its purpose as it successfully delivered Gilshine from the clutches of Hatcher and died a noble death. Unfortunately, Hatcher also grabbed Riga and stuck her in his mouth. As he swallowed her whole, she was able to drink a GASEOUSFORM potion and float out unharmed. A race ensues towards the boat where Hatcher is coming closer to the party while they struggle with its fear effects. Hatcher is almost upon them when Osh Veiras shouts out, getting its attention. Osh is grabbed by Hatcher, but Falda somehow makes Hatcher drop Osh. Unfortunately, Osh doesn’t get away in time and ends up being swallowed by Hatcher!

Everyone (minus brave Osh) piles into the canoe and Falda summons a giant squid to start pulling the boat out into the water quickly. Hatcher runs out of the cave towards them, but is forced to return to it once he sees the group is out of his reach. The squid pulls the canoe into a swamp and everyone takes a breather. They have retrieved Gilshine, but the effects of Hatcher have remained with them in the form of a condition. Dominic is afflicted with SLEEPLESS, Riga is NUMB, Connie has CONDUIT, and Falda is HOLLOW. What this means, they don’t know yet. However, Gilshine is still unconscious and unmoving, but is alive and they have just survived an encounter with a god…

The party gathered around the Thendrakes camp and discussed what to do with the Kolban Egg. It was finally decided that Falda would complete the drawing of the runes around the egg, and then the group would find the other end of where the egg’s magic was and then complete the ritual there. Chieftain Duro fed them some more of the magic eggs, which the group gobbled up since they hadn’t eaten in a while, and they depart towards the sounds of the strings again.

Before they reach the string destination, they enter a cavern with an empty iron cage and a key in the lock. Before pondering too long about what this was, the ground started to shake and crack. Feylanna sees an image of her father underneath the icy ground. Falda turns the key in the cage to unlock it and the cage falls apart suddenly. Riga gets a faraway look in her eyes and says, “Hailstone is coming.” Everyone rushes out of the chamber as, behind them, a flashing light and rumbling starts coming out from the cavern.

Reaching the area with the fey and the strings, Dominic casts SILENCE and the group runs as fast as they can to the opening at the other side of the room, unmolested by anything. Upon reaching the corridor and walking through it, Riga sees an oddly-placed window. She looks in and sees a bedroom with a person sleeping in a bed. A hooded figure opens up a door, creeps inside the room, and stabs the sleeper. The person in the hood turns out to be a man-sized rat named Ben and the sleeping person turns out to be Barry. At least, it seems that way in Miragenon. Unsure if the scene is happening right now or a future to come, Riga breaks the window and suddenly a storm of hail blasts out everywhere. Hailstone must be near!

Continuing down the corridor, the heroes make their way into Hatcher’s nest. Hatcher is nowhere to be found so all the remains is the Kolban Egg. Falda casts RESISTCOLD on herself whilst Dominic casts PROTECTIONFROMENERGY on himself to protect from the biting cold emanating from the egg. While the rest of the party builds a fire a distance away from the egg to keep warm while on watch, Falda spends around two hours drawing the complex runes with Dominic following behind and making notes of the runes on a piece of parchment paper. When finished, they compare the runes and notice that Falda drew a rune upside down. This was hastily corrected on both the physical form and the parchment copy. Falda was so fatigued from the extreme cold, Dominic cast LESSERRESTORATION against Falda’s wishes.

The group starts arguing about how to exit Hatcher’s nest when Feylanna questions Falda’s climbing ability. Purely out of spite, Falda casts SPIDERCLIMB and then runs upside down on a vine to refute Feylanna’s claims and show that he is capable of acting like a 12 yr old. They decide to go back the way they came and come across a beach, the same beach where they met Osh Veiras the day before. Unfortunately, it is hailing which precedes the arrival of….HAILSTONE, the ice demon! Dominic casts PRAYER, beseeching Leben to protect him, then approaches Hailstone, asking it about the location of the tomb of Rofin. At the same time, Feylanna let loose a cluster of arrows at Hailstone, Riga enlarges and rages, and an epic battle ensues!

Hailstone has an annoying habit of disappearing and regenerating to recuperate from any wounds the heroes give it. Dominic attempted to move away from Hailstone, but misjudged the size of its greatsword, and was struck down. Falda was able to revive the cleric and battle continued. Dominic continuously called upon his god Leben to heal the party. The group runs down the beach to get a little distance and they noticed the hail stopped. They see a dwarf sitting on a rock. The dwarf is wearing traveller’s clothes, with a white dragon stitched onto his cloak. He beseeches the party to tell him of the location of the Kolban Egg, but the group isn’t fooled and basically ignore him. The dwarf disappears and Hailstone reappears, back in his ice demon form. Battle continues with Talen getting critically hit but Riga is able to fell the foul demon with a mighty blow from her weapon. They find some items on the body including enormous-sized versions of a greatsword, composite bow, and armor. They also find some blue quartz jewels and a magical ring, which Feylanna and Falda get into a fight over.

Dominic didn’t get his answer from Hailstone on the whereabouts of the Rofin tomb. He knows of a spell called SPEAKWITHDEAD that could probably accomplish the task, but he has made himself a promise to not use necromantic magic. An inner turmoil occurs as his desire to find a cure to the Rokis Curse battles his own divine beliefs. The rest have no such compunction and cut off its head…

The party encounters Finger, a strange Black Fey with three fingers on one hand and who squawks like a chicken sometimes. Finger seems to see inside of each member, saying cryptic things like “Evil wears your face” or “Madness bears your name”. A lot of what he says doesn’t make sense, but he does indicate that he can make a way to the Kolban Egg and that the party has to defeat the ice demon named Hailstone. Dominic remembers that the Gani witch, Emilda, said these words to him: “I cannot lift the Rokis curse, but I might set you on the course to learn more, and if you can capture hailstone in your hand and hold it, it may tell you of the cradle and tomb of Rofin.” Dominic wonders if and how that statement relates to the demon.

Again with the nonsensical rules of Miragenon, the party enters the cave they just came out of, but instead of bringing them back in the tunnel with the draining vines, they see they are now inside of an extremely large cavern with the ceiling and floor almost invisible due to the distance and with large vines that can allow them access to the floor. There is also an extreme cold that seems to be emanating from the floor. Falda casts RESISTCOLD and SPIDERCLIMB to allow the party to be able to traverse the thick vines safely.

On the way down, they see a bundle wrapped up in webs. Falda cut open the webbing to reveal some bones of a humanoid creature, as well as some glowing green gems. Unfortunately, this seemed to attract the attention of an ethereal spider, a large spider with a humanoid face that can phase in and out of existence quickly. It poisoned Riga with its hit-and-run attacks, but the party was able to run to a defensible position and ready an attack once the spider materialized. Dominic attempted to cast a SEARINGLIGHT spell on it, but the spider attack affected his concentration too much and the spell fizzled out. Falda was able to kill it with a couple of SCORCHINGRAY spells.

At the bottom of the large cavern, the party sees the Kolban Egg, a stone egg about 5 tons where the cold seems to be the worst. As Falda starts drawing sacred runes around it to complete a ritual, Dominic starts meditating to get a LESSERRESTORATION spell while Riga, Feylanna, and Talun keep watch. The cold and previous spider attack became too much for Falda and he passed out before completing all of the runes. At this time, the scion Hatcher made himself known by flying into the cavern and perching on some vines above. Luckily, Hatcher didn’t see the party and they were saved from fighting it from a mole that appeared from a hole from inside of the cavern. He gestured to follow them and the party went through to find that, in the weird logic of Miragenon, they were now in the penthouse of the Rokis Trading Company.

Dominic searched around the desk of Anton Rokis and noticed that all of the papers were blank except for one inside of a frame. Dominic pulled the letter out and noticed it mentioned the name of Pravus (RTC Letter). He also pulled back the curtains to see Lebsmouth swathed in frost, most likely heralding the presence of the ice demon Hailstone. The office windows then started to crack and blow out due to the temperature outside and the party jumped out and found themselves on a beach with Osh Veiras leading them to safety back in the Thendrakes fire cave. Osh says the group must take a sacrifice from Hatcher in order to leave Miragenon. He mentions that it looks like the hail is getting closer and that it will probably arrive the next day.

Dominic casts a LESSERRESTORATION spell on Falda in order for him to regain some of the damage done to him from prior battles. The party decides to rest for the night with one person on watch at all times. In the morning, Osh manages to convince Riga to give her axe to him to create a debt that the tribe must repay. The group wants him to get Duro to eat more of the special eggs and then start planning on how to return to the Kolban Egg and complete the ritual that was interrupted. They also fear on what will happen if they encounter Hatcher and Hailstone at the same time when they return to the cavern…

Falda, Riga, and Feylanna come upon Dominic Rokis whilst traveling through Miragenon and notice he is marked on the face with a sylvan script that will protect him. He describes his story and how he is looking for the cradle of Rofin. He doesn’t know exactly how he arrived there, but it started when he touched a gold coin at the bottom of the river that was apparently cast away by Feylanna in the past.

The party spoke with Duro, the chieftain of the Thendrakes and questioned him about any knowledge of the cradle of Rofin (which he did not have) and if Hatcher could be freed. Duro told them that when Hatcher was free, the Thendrakes would be free to walk the real world. Duro didn’t think that the Kolban Egg would assist in freeing Hatcher but he recommended the party seek out a dark fey named Finger for a way out of Miragenon as some fey can build bridges to the normal realm. He told them to follow the direction of the strings.

Duro also gave a bit of history: The Thendrakes brought Hatcher’s egg and a Marwramei statue (a 4’ tall statue with the head of a crocodile and jewels on its fingers) to the Isle of Gull. A group of Black Fey called the “Midnight Root of Eight” betrayed the Thendrakes and trapped them in Miragenon with Hatcher. The Midnight Root of Eight was described as the family of fey in charge of the hatchery.

The party encountered a bunch of black fey and ethereal spiders on the way to Finger. The spiders were spinning glowing webs and the fey were harvesting stuff off of the webs. The group managed to evade most of the spiders when Feylanna cast WINDWALL and escaped through a tunnel where they encountered some draining vines. Feylanna was caught in one of them but she was managed to be freed by the mace of Dominic. Some of Falda’s constitution damage was healed when Dominic cast LESSERRESTORATION on him.

The party completed the journey through the tunnel and saw a fey with three fingers on one hand. Assuming it was Finger, Riga kneeled down and asked for a favour.